Fooling the emperor to cross the sea

Quite recently the Kaduna state governor, Malam Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai maintained with unverified glitziness that parts of his constituency have more untapped gold reserves than South Africa. Not long after he claimed in another gambit that it was PMB that “forced” him to contest for the governship race in “revenge” for persuading him to run […]

Quite recently the Kaduna state governor, Malam Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai maintained with unverified glitziness that parts of his constituency have more untapped gold reserves than South Africa. Not long after he claimed in another gambit that it was PMB that “forced” him to contest for the governship race in “revenge” for persuading him to run the presidential race, soon after the accidental public servant unveiled his inter-communal hubris on a Channels TV ‘Sunrise Daily’ program of 6th April.
For this writer the veracity of these claims is not the fundamental issue rather it is the self advertising ploy of the grand strategy in play. What exactly is Governor el-Rufai’s strategic game plan under the current presidential administration? Or is he just craving for national attention due to some gnawing political insecurity? But before answering these questions let us briefly digress to ancient China.
 In 643 AD, Emperor Taizong of Tang, balked from crossing the sea to a campaign against Koguryo in a decisive battle. His general Xue Rengui thought of a stratagem to get the emperor across and allay his fear of seasickness: on a clear day, the emperor was invited to an important meeting. They entered through a dark tunnel into a hall where they instead feasted. After feasting for several days, the emperor heard the sound of waves and realized that he had been lured onto a ship. General Xue drew aside the curtains to reveal that they had already crossed the sea.
The political relevance of Malam el-Rufai under the PMB dispensation can best viewed against the background of his return from exile after the demise of President Umar Yar’adua in 2010. Then the governor pitched tent with former President Goodluck Jonathan from where he castigated the electoral relevance of PMB by June 2011 when it was obvious Dr. Jonathan had no vacancy for him el-Rufai signaled the end of their political romance with a scathing “Jonathan’s Tough Choices”. While it is true that PMB surprisingly endorsed el-Rufai to be governor of Kaduna state the reason might have been predicated on Robert Greene’s dictum of “hire a former enemy and he will be more loyal than a friend, because he has more to prove”.
According to former President Obasanjo in his most recent memoirs entitled ‘My Watch’ (Vol.2, page 110) el-Rufai “has an inability to be loyal to any person or issue for long” and as if to prove his former boss right the governor while addressing the 37th Kaduna International Trade Fair in March 2016 announced the intention of his government acquire majority shares in Peugeot Automobile Nigeria (PAN) that coming from someone who has always insisted that “government has no business in business”.
 Ironically the veteran journalist Ishaq Modibbo Kawu on the pages of Vanguard (June16th, 2011) maintained that el-Rufai lacks the inherent capacity to be a General Xue because “in matters practical he lacks the breath of strategic vision to influence the dynamics of events”.
 It is with this varied tapestry of el-Rufai’s recent political trajectory that in trying to understand why Nigeria one of the world’s largest exporters of crude oil is currently suffering from a perennial shortage of refined petroleum products there is a pertinent need to revisit the Wole Soyinka Centre Annual Media Lecture that took place on 13th July 2015 in our nation’s capital, Abuja.
The country was then in an ebullient mood when the guest speaker, privatization czar and leading APC ideologue governor el-Rufai enunciated what many believed was the main policy thrust of PMB on Nigeria’s oil industry. And if the reader can further recall the composition federal executive council was still being eagerly awaited, the accomplished technocrat and political neophyte Dr. Ibe Kachikwu had not even come on board and the newly sworn-in governor was doubling as the nation’s “unofficial vice-president”.
 Rapt national attention was therefore riveted on the governor’s call for NNPC to be scrapped as he lamented that “NNPC had constituted itself as a parallel government, functioning in isolation of Nigeria” concluding that “it must die; it is just the manner of death that we must talk about”.  
 Dr. Kachikwu became Group Managing Director of the hydrocarbons giant in August he was concurrently appointed Minister of State for Petroleum Resources in November 2015. The manner of death of NNPC was therefore prescribed by Kachikwu who in March 2016 superintended over its funeral obsequies by unbundling the behemoth to first 30 independent companies then 7, eventually making a dramatic u-turn disclaiming the entire exercise under the guise of an “ephemeral restructuring”. The pendulum swings of Kachikwu were largely informed by the questionable legality over the unbundling exercise; how could such a thoroughbred lawyer with quantum of cognate experience in the oil industry be so brazen?
 The outcome of that botched reform however culminated into a national strike long called off but triggered a national fuel supply crisis resurrecting other industry wide issues that all would have been curtailed if the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) had been given added impetus rather than corporately killing the NNPC.
The PIB was originally packaged by former President Obasanjo’s Economic Management Team and submitted to the National Assembly before the expiration of his first term and has since then being lying comatose despite the fact that it is common knowledge it will bring about to our nation’s oil industry effective management, good governance, transparency and accountability.
Did Governor el-Rufai an arrowhead member of the Obasanjo’s Economic Management Team and National Energy Council dissimulate the efficacy of PIB for the incoming presidency? 
This writer opines that PMB was ensnared by the ploy of “government within a government” and the rest as they say is now history of a simmering wave of discontent over the current fuel shortages arising from the failed NNPC unbundling. Former President Obasanjo was similarly smoke screened to abolish the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) at the onset of his administration.
One would have assumed at the peak of the fuel crisis which is now mercifully abating Kachikwu would have received some form of public relations succor from el-Rufai rather the governor actually banned the sale of petroleum products in jerry cans in his largely agrarian state, a measure that did more to exacerbate social tension than ameliorate it.

Yahaya Joe wrote this piece from Wusasa, Zaria.